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They’re stunningly gorgeous, reliable, and resist pests. They require very little maintenance and they promote peace.

They don’t feed the hungry, but most world leaders don’t either.

Yes, daffodils should rule the world.

Until the peonies and irises come along, and then the duties will be shared.

But for now, we live in a daffodil world.

I started a couple of years ago with a cheap bag of bulbs from Costco. It produced lovely little yellow daffodils. So the next year, I turned to a catalog and purchased a few more varieties.

Now I am hooked, and these quiet, yet lovely little early risers of spring are enough to give me signs of hope every year. They cautiously poke from the ground when the frost is still in the air, when flurries are still flying, having full trust that the 70 degree weather will appear. And it does.

But look out daffodils, the hostas are not far behind, and I hear they are willing to redefine world order. They are fresh and green and itching to unfurl. Uh oh. Peace out.

I’m not really used to working with wool. It really doesn’t behave like cotton. Yet, its rich textures have just been a delight. I love the way thread sinks into it. I love the way thread can sit on top of wool, as well.

It inspires me.

I’m also a fool for anything hand-dyed and much wool is currently hand-dyed. (And not cheap, I might add.)

This project really has been one of texture. I experimented with a number of different Aurifil threads, but kept falling back on a nice 30 weight in different shades of neutrals. It has just enough substance to show up, but is not so thick that it starts to cause problems in the machine.

I wanted this to feel a lot like a walk in the woods near the house. Twisty, gnarly branches — barren, waiting for spring.

Here’s a peak at the back side of this project, for those of you who appreciate a look behind the scenes. I think it’s every bit as interesting as the front, maybe even more so.

I have done some projects with wool and roving before. This floral below was one of my favorites. Something about wool is much more free-form for me than rigid piecing in cotton.

Since this project goes on for 100 blocks, I thought I would give an update every 10 blocks or so.

For now at least, I am really looking forward to every block, searching for the time to make it before the next block rolls out. (New blocks come out every Sunday and Thursday). Even more than that, I am enjoying seeing all the other work that others are creating, on the Splendid Sampler Facebook page.

Here is a look at my blocks so far. This grouping includes one of the bonus blocks which I did before the group even started.

They include everything from hand embroidery to digitizing and machine embroidery, as well as needle-turned applique and raw edge applique. I have not done any paper piecing, though some of the blocks have made that available. I am holding out for a slightly more complicated block…one that would be more difficult to piece traditionally than to paper piece. Maybe a little flower or something like that. With 90 or so blocks to go, I’m sure something will come along!

Luckily, I’m still finding time to do some of my own work as well, which I will share in an upcoming post. I’m really into neutrals these days, with a pop of color, so I see a theme emerging. A peak at my next project.

Naturally, I flipped through the book and then started without so much as reading a paragraph. I promise I will go back and read. The book looks great. I just was inspired by the word “improv” and began immediately.

Here’s a sneak peak and to be honest , I don’t know how I will complete it. Just know that it’s a gift, so I don’t want to divulge the whole quilt til it’s been given away. At that point, it’s done and there can be no regrets or turning back. For now, it’s simply a work in progress.

In machine embroidery, I am preparing to teach a Software Inspirations class based on a tutorial from Sylvain Bergeron, Bernina educator. In it, we learn to create textile fabric using embroidery…like argyle.

This is done completely in software, then stitched out as machine embroidery. It can now be cut up and used as a handbag piece, or in a quilt, or basically used as any other fabric. Would be fun to do a small series of these in different shades and then put them together as a quilt or table runner. Although I’m sure this image looks black and white, the thread used in the squares is actually a mauve with white lines, on Moda’s black grunge fabric.

That being said, like many sewists, I spend a lot of time in the garden in the spring, head back into the sewing room when it rains or as the weather gets too warm and buggy to be hanging around outside. I leave you with a few lovely pics from around the area this past couple of weeks. The earth is stunning.

I am making some progress on the Polka Dot tree. Getting the basics right is always slow going…and the truth is, I am making this up as I go along so we’ll see how it turns out.

The shape of the tree was first drawn on freezer paper.

As you can see, I had to tape several rows of freezer paper together. Freezer paper is cheap. Large format drawing paper is not. I can work with almost anything.

Next I took the garment wool, which was half-price at the local shop, and I attached Wonder Under 805 to the back. Any double sided adhesive paper would work, especially Steam-a-Seam Lite. However, my experience is that once I attach the wool and iron it into position, the Wonder Under causes fewer problems with the sewing needle getting loaded with glue gunk. Every project is slightly different so we’ll see how this goes.

Next, I laid out the wool with the fusible on the back right side up over my cutting mat, and placed the freezer paper drawing on top. Then I simply trace the drawing with a rotary cutter.

Next comes the tricky part, as the tree then is just a squiggly bunch of fabric that has to be switched over and laid out on the red twill. Once it is moved into position, then I carefully remove the backing which allows me to fuse the tree to the background.

This is where you have to get creative. I happen to own a small flat ironing pad which I literally move around under the flat tree, and iron/fuse a little at a time until the tree is attached to the twill. It doesn’t have to be perfectly fused, as I will be stitching down all the branches and the trunk. The fusing just has to be enough to hold everything in place while I am moving it around under the machine to stitch it on.

Next I spread it out over a layer of quilt batting to act as stabilizer.

This is NOT the quilt sandwich!

I will eventually trim off the edge of the quilt batting and attach more fabric to the sides of the quilt (I think…if all goes as planned). But I will be fusing polka dot leaves on top of all the branches – 60 of them, one for every fabric I received in the exchange. Then I plan to do some embellishing and then once all is finished on the top of the quilt, I will add ANOTHER layer of quilt batting and the backing and then quilt the whole project.

Whew! I’m exhausted just thinking about it. But everything follows one step at a time.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you make progress. Just like life.